


Pet Play Date

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 20:31:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12218406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Z, Jack, and Louisa go on a ride around Jorvik with their new squirrels to collect golden horseshoes. Z belongs to ZDusk and Jack belongs to SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher.





	Pet Play Date

"Come on, Jack, we're gonna be late!" Z called to her friend, who was further up the mountain.

"I'm just keeping an eye on my new friend," said Jack, looking back at the little squirrel scampering along the ground behind his horse. Z snorted, Phantom copying the sound. "Oi, don't sass me. Anyway, what does it matter if we're late? Louisa knows by now that we're usually late, she can just read a book or something." But he slowly made his way down the mountain pass near Firgrove, and the two of them rode their horses at a walk down to where the Firgrove races were run.

"I know, but it's polite to arrive on time," said Z. Jack snorted.

Louisa looked up from her book when she heard the sound of two sets of hoofbeats approaching, and was pleased to find that this time, it was her friends approaching and not just another rider. Not many people had come here to do the race today, which was just fine by her because it meant that she could sit beneath the large bridge and read in peace while she waited for her friends and her new squirrel, Nabnut, investigated the greenery in search of things to eat.

"Hello, we're finally here," said Z, smiling at her friend as Louisa grinned and put her book away. "What are you reading this time?"

"Another epic fantasy," said Louisa.

"Oh? Not Warriors today?" asked Jack. "Or a smutty fantasy?" Louisa blushed, though she wasn't that embarrassed.

"My kindle would probably get broken out here, and I finished the latest book in that series," said Louisa. Nabnut stopped his exploration at the sound of these new arrivals and looked at the two new squirrels, twitching his ears and flicking his tail in excitement. He then began to creep closer to the new squirrels before darting away, his prey instincts telling him to run away from the predator.

"Ha, he's scared of you, Z," said Jack.

"He'll get used to me," said Z with a shrug. She dismounted her horse, and Louisa barely managed to resist the urge to look for her friend's tails. It was still a little baffling to her that her friend could look so human while being a fantasy creature, but then, Jack had his weird animal magnetism and they were all Soul Riders.

"Was your squirrel scared of you at first?" asked Louisa.

"A little," said Z. "But he's cool with me now. Aren't you, buddy?" She smiled as her squirrel ran up her arm and onto her shoulder, its fluffy tail waving in the breeze. Louisa gave a little squeal of delight as nine more tails unfolded out of the air behind Z, all long and white and fluffy with black tips, along with two furry white fox ears on top of her head.

"Well, now that we're all here and comfortable," said Jack, "can we rest for a bit?"

"Why do you need to rest? Didn't Dale do all the work?" asked Louisa.

"Yeah, but Jack's just a little paranoid that his new little animal companion is going to end up being trampled underhoof or something," said Z.

"Understandable," said Louisa, nodding. "I get worried when Nabnut races with me while I train, but he's fine."

"So, how many golden horseshoes have you found?" asked Z, sitting down on the picnic blanket that Louisa had spread out over the ground.

"About thirty, I think," said Louisa. As part of Jorvik's Founding celebrations, golden horseshoes had been scattered all over Jorvik. These could then be traded in for prizes, such as a blue outfit and blue and brown tack set. Louisa thought that they looked quite nice, though it was too hot to wear them. The new tack looked very nice on Classygirl, though. "How about you?"

"Honestly, I haven't really been looking," said Jack, leaning back to sit with his back against a tree. His squirrel quickly scampered up the tree in search of nuts, disappearing into its branches.

"Has Ydris forbidden you from leaving the wagon now?" asked Louisa.

"Nah," said Jack, shrugging. "Just couldn't be bothered."

"Okay," said Louisa. "That's good, I guess. Though I shouldn't really get involved in the romantic lives of my friends, anyway."

"You're just worried because you care," said Z, holding a hand out in an attempt to encourage Nabnut to come closer to her. The squirrel kept staring at her ears and tails, though, and kept a wary distance.

"If I'd brought a cat with me, it would be playing with your tails right now," said Louisa.

"And probably chasing the squirrels," said Jack.

"Yes, which is why I left my cats at home," said Louisa. "I'll have to teach them to get along with my squirrel."

"Ha, good luck," said Jack. "It's kinda hard to get an animal to change its instincts. Especially cats."

"Well, if worst comes to worst, my squirrel can always stay with you," said Louisa. "Right?"

"Yeah, he won't see anything worse than he'd see with you two," said Jack.

"Hey, I named him after Nabnut, not Conker," said Louisa. "Don't ruin his innocence."

"Relax, Justin is still an innocent little baby despite our influence," said Jack.

"Yes, too innocent sometimes," said Z with a scowl. "Anyway, let's go look for these elusive golden horseshoes."

"Elusive? I've run into quite a few just training," said Louisa. "In fact, I managed to get the entire anniversary set that way. Now I'm just collecting them to exchange for shillings."

"What do you need shillings for? Doesn't Lisa buy stable care for you?" asked Jack.

"Yes," said Louisa. "But I still like to save up to buy clothes and tack, like this fox sweater." She ran her hands over the new sweater that all three of them wore. She'd excitedly texted them the news as soon as she'd received the weekly email from Jorvik City Mall about new clothes being added, and they'd all gone out together to buy the sweater.

"Yes, now we're matching dorks," said Z, pulling her own down. "That makes sense."

"Do we have to?" asked Jack with a sigh. "I literally just sat down."

"Yes, get your ass up, boy," said Z with a laugh. "We're going to find some more golden horseshoes."

"I don't want the set anyway," said Jack. "Can't I just sit here?"

"You're the one always crying poor," said Z. "Up, boy."

"Woof," said Jack, and grunted as he got to his feet. His squirrel ran down the tree and perched on his shoulder, somehow staying there as Jack climbed into Dale's saddle. His horse blew air out through his nose, clearly wanting to stay here as much as Jack did.

"I feel so small," said Louisa as she put her book and the picnic blanket away and mounted Classygirl. Her shaggy little Icelandic blinked sleepily, having been snoozing while her rider read a book. Sometimes Louisa read aloud to her horses, but she hadn't done that today. She got a little self-conscious reading aloud in front of people, and Minka was hanging out near where the race started.

"Well, it's not like you couldn't have brought another, taller horse," said Z. "It's not like you don't have over a hundred horses to choose from. Oh, wait."

"Don't be a bitch, Z," said Jack.

"Aw, she knows I don't mean it," said Z.

"Yeah, it's fine," said Louisa with a shrug as she adjusted the reins. "I just felt like bringing her out. Even if she's not the best horse to take on a hack."

"Too lazy to pick another one?" asked Jack.

"More like I just couldn't make my mind up," said Louisa. "Smokeeye's out of commission because she has a foal to feed, and I already had Classygirl out anyway so I figured I'd just take her along again."

"That's fair," said Jack. They set out in search of golden horseshoes, keeping up a steady stream of chatter while they kept an eye out for glimmers of gold. It was just like star hunting, only they weren't in such hard to reach locations.

"So, how are you enjoying your squirrels?" asked Z.

"It's really nice to have a little training buddy," said Louisa. She laughed. "It's so cute how he runs over to me at the starting line of the race, and he runs along the tops of the fences. He keeps out of the way of hooves, too, which is a really good thing."

"Good for the heart," said Jack, nodding.

"He's smart enough to know how to stay out of trouble," said Louisa. "Which is more than I can say for the rest of our group." They shared a laugh at that.

"Even if the danger isn't actually dangerous," said Z, frowning as Nabnut scampered well out of her way. One of her tails flicked irritably, and Phantom swished his own tail at it in return.

"I'm happy to have another wild animal as my companion," said Jack. 

"Another woodland creature for the little forest prince," said Z. "How sweet."

"That's funny, Ydris said exactly the same thing," said Jack.

"Great minds think alike," said Z, sitting up straight with a proud smile on her face.

"Yeah, yeah," said Jack. He saw something sparkling, and veered towards it. "Found one."

"Sweet, that's another twenty shillings for me," said Louisa, picking up the golden horseshoe and putting it in her bag. The strange magic of Jorvik caused another horseshoe to appear until they had all collected one, and then the horseshoe didn't reappear.

"You've actually been training, Louisa, have you seen any other horseshoes around here?" asked Jack.

"Of course," said Louisa, straightening up in her saddle. "Come on, I'll show you guys where they are." She rode off at a trot, resisting the urge to tolt. If she did that, she'd inevitably end up smacking into something. She'd done it many times before, and had learned that lesson well.

"Easy," said Z, snagging the golden horseshoe from the bridge and putting it in her bag. Jack did the same, and Louisa led them on to the next golden horseshoe she'd found.

"How the hell did we miss this one?" asked Jack as they all stopped to collect the golden horseshoe up near Minka.

"Were you looking forward to seeing me so much that you weren't looking?" asked Louisa, feeling warmed at the idea.

"Of course we were," said Z, her tails swishing happily.

"Aww, you guys," Louisa blushed, looking down at Classygirl's mane.

After collecting the last few golden horseshoes in the town of Firgrove proper, the three of them rode back through the mountain pass and down to Valedale.

"Why couldn't we just meet in Valedale?" Jack grumbled.

"Because I wanted to meet in Firgrove," said Louisa.

"It's a great place," said Z.

"Though Valedale is pretty good too," said Louisa, giving Lisa a wave and a smile as they passed by Avalon's cottage in search of golden horseshoes.

"What is that?" asked Z, looking at a spot behind Avalon's house.

"What's what?" asked Louisa, looking in the direction that Z was looking. "Oh." There was a strange dark-skinned girl back there, dressed in all black on a blue and black Jorvik Wild. A little squirrel accompanied her, wearing a tiny black eyemask over its eyes. It was adorable, darting to and fro as the two of them investigated the little shed out the back of Avalon's house.

"A little detective team," said Jack. "That's kinda cute, actually."

"Woah, hold the phone. Jack actually likes another person other than Ydris?" asked Z. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Haha, very funny," Jack deadpanned. "Hey, I think I can see another horseshoe from here." There was something glittering in one of the shops, and, when the three of them rode up to it, they discovered that the golden horseshoe was hanging by a string from the roof of the store.

"Why they had to put a horseshoe here, I have no idea," the man running the store muttered. "I see someone ride up and think 'oh boy, I'm going to make a sale', but then they just grab the horseshoe and leave."

"Sucks to be you, then," said Jack, turning and riding away once he'd grabbed the horseshoe.

"Sorry," said Louisa, looking through the items he had for sale after putting away the golden horseshoe. "I've already bought everything I wanted from here."

"Oh, you're fine, you were actually one of my best customers," said the man. Louisa smiled at him and went to join Jack.

Z joined them after a while, and they continued on through Jorvik, finding golden horseshoes and talking. Over time, Nabnut even became used to Z, until he was riding on one of her shoulders while Z's own squirrel rode on her other shoulder. Jack's squirrel, meanwhile, had taken to sitting on his shoulder, looking around at his surroundings. Whenever he saw a golden horseshoe, the squirrel would chirp and tug on Jack's blue hair, pointing in the direction of the horseshoe.

By the end of the day, the three of them managed to hand in many horseshoes. Jack and Z got their blue and brown outfits and tack sets, and Louisa happily pocketed all of the Jorvik shillings that the girl handed her.

"This is going towards that new leather jacket in the mall," said Louisa.

"Would it really suit you, though?" asked Z. "I mean, I know I look good in leather jackets, but you don't seem like the right kind of girl to wear one."

"I'm getting it for Lisa," said Louisa, blushing with a little smile.

"Aww, adorable," said Jack. "We'll keep it a secret from her, won't we, Z?"

"My lips are sealed," said Z, making the motion of zipping her lips shut and throwing away the key. Louisa laughed.

"Thanks, guys," said Louisa, smiling at them.


End file.
